It's a good day

Yesterday at the soup kitchen I volunteer at, Pastor Brad showed us a video made by Louie Schwartzberg. It was an amazing video with beautiful pictures, heart warming music, and a great message embedded within. It is a video about gratitude and contentment, and a video that remind each one of us just how blessed we are. All we need to do is open our eyes and look around us, open our ears and pay attention to the sounds around us, open our hands and feel the various textures surrounding us, and open our heart to the beauty of the day. My words cannot express just much this video struck me, so please check out the video yourself by clicking on the link below. I've also posted the narrative in this post in case you need a second glance. I hope after you finish the video, your heart will be filled with thanksgiving and gratefulness. Not only that, I pray that gratefulness will turn into a blessing to all those around you. Enjoy.

Gratitude - Narrarated by Brother David Steindl-Rast, pictures by Louie Schwartzberg, music by Gary Malkin

 

Gratitude

It’s not just another day in your life, it’s the one day that is given to you today. It’s given to you. It’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.

Begin by opening your eyes and being surprised that you have eyes you can open.

Look at that incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for pure enjoyment.

Look at the sky; we so rarely look at the sky, so rarely note how different it is from morning to morning, with clouds coming and going. We just think of the weather, and even of the weather we don’t think of the many nuances of the weather. We just think of good weather and bad weather.

This day, right now, has unique weather, maybe a kind that never in that exact form will come again. The formation of clouds in the sky will never again be the same as it is right now.

Open your eyes, look at that.

Look at the faces of people who you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom. Not only their own story, but the story of their ancestors. We all go back so far.

And in this present moment on this day, all the people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the world, flows together and meets you here, like a life-giving water if you only open your heart and drink.

Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us. You flip a switch and there is electric light, you turn a faucet and there is warm water and cold water, and drinkable water. It’s a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.

These are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which you can open your heart.

And so I wish that you would open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you, that everyone who you will meet on this day will be blessed by you. Just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch. Just by your presence.

Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you.

Then, it will really be a good day.
—Brother David Steindl-Rast.

Lessons from the three little pigs

Yesterday RN, EN, and I went to see the gingerbread house displays at Hyatt hotel. All the pieces were nicely done and they were all so creative. There were Harry Potter quidditch game inspired gingerbread house, toy story houses, Charlie brown theme, the Grinch themed , and many others. As I admired each one of the display, one of the ones that caught my eyes was the one based on the story "The Three Little Pigs". For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, it's basically a story about three little pigs building their own houses. The first little pig built a house out of straw, the wolf came wanting to eat the little pig, so he "huffed and puffed and blew the house down". The second little pig built a house out of sticks, the wolf came and he "huffed and puffed and blew that house down" as well. Then the third little pig built his house with bricks. The wolf came wanting to eat the little pig, but he could not blow the house down no matter how hard he huffed and puffed. Now most us grow up listening to this story. We all know the moral of the story, don't take short cut, spend time and hard work on building a strong foundation so that when danger comes, all the hard work will pay off.

When I was thinking about this story, I was reminded of another story. This story though was told by Jesus in the bible as recorded by two of the apostles, Matthew and Luke. Jesus said:

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the stream rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Matthew 7:24-27.

The moral of the story is the same. Jesus is not teaching us how to build houses, He is teaching us how to build our faith and our spiritual life. Jesus reminded us that it is important that we spend time building a strong foundation in our faith so that when we encounter trials, we can withstand the temptations and frustrations. Let's face it, as part of life, we will face situations that will make us just want to throw up the towel and give up. We will meet people who will be like the big bad wolf that just want to huff and puff and blow us down. We will face the storms of life that makes us feel like we are drowning and we can't find anything to hold onto. If our foundation is not built on a solid rock, we will be swept away or we will fall down with a great crash. Now how do we build a strong foundation? Jesus made that pretty clear too, we need to put into practice all the principles and lessons we learned from the bible. This include study God's words, use our gifts in serving Him, worship and praise God, spend time in prayers...

I think for most of us, this is something we know. But knowing is one thing, doing is another. I find for myself, my spiritual life fluctuate. Some days I am diligently laying the bricks to build a strong foundation, other days I get a little bit lazy and I mix in a bit of straws and sticks. But I am reminded that we some times need to be our own building inspector and evaluate different areas of our life. Some times we need to be critical with ourselves so we can get back on track building that foundation.

In the end, anyone can build a house that will stand firm when the sun is shining and the wind is still, but it's the storm that will truly test the foundation of the house. So let us not build sand castles that will be swept away by the waves, let us build our house on the rock Jesus Christ!

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22